"In the military we all kind of know red means, ‘uh oh, there’s problems’... Amber, middle of the road, we’re doing okay. And green is good to go, all is right. We took that same concept and we applied it to our menus.”

Uh oh, there's problems. Is that the way people talk to each other in the military now?

62 comments:

Well, sure..."there is a problem", "ok", and "good to go" are all things we said when I was in the military...and that was way back in the previous century. I still use those phrases a lot today.

In fact, they trained us to tell someone that they are going to be "ok" when we start to give first aid to 'em. The Drill Sgts made it very clear (and yes, those guys have a unique way of "making things clear") that we were NOT to say "all right" or anything else...that "ok" was the only acceptable phrase to use. The reason why is 'cause it is a universal phrase, and other NATO troops would still know what we're talking about when we say "You're gonna be ok"....which you always say to someone who has been hurt, even if (especially if!) they ain't ok at all.

Very interesting results from True the Vote. Only 819k unique signatures, 55k invalid, 229k questionable. That leaves 535k validated, 540k needed for a recall. Well done Caro, Frau, AliceH, JoanD! (The GAB will have an election anyway, but that is a very different number from the 1 million claimed).

Though I would have assumed that "Go for Green" would be something closer to "Go Army!"

The problem with directives in the military, though, like Michelle showing up and deciding that "uh oh, there's a problem", is that there is no such thing as a *suggestion* and the organization has complete dictatorial authority over the minutia of life.

So it doesn't matter that in reality more calories are better for highly active young men or that the military already has full time dietitians and others who's job is to make certain that everyone has nutritious meals, the first lady shows up because everyone *knows* that military cafeteria food sucks, and then stuff like this happens.

There are probably training videos being made to talk about healthy food and what to eat and everyone is going to have to sit through them, because someone decided that this was a good way to show that they'd followed their instructions to "do something".

This to me is the classic Althouse comment thread. Someone provides the information asked for. Red/green etc. are common ways of talking in the military. Subsequent replies pretend they didn't hear it, because it would interfere with juvenile insults of an Obama or a liberal. Someone doesn't read the article and makes claims that are clearly untrue if you actually follow the link (Synova's claim that somehow the metabolism of some soldiers is being ignored, which the army dietician addresses specifically when asked why 'red' items remain on the menu). Prediction: more insults of Michelle Obama to follow.

What's not clear to me is whether soldiers had weight problems that needed to be dealt with or not. Is the target audience soldiers in desk jobs who need to slim down? Or is this initiative targeted at very physically active soldiers who are doing just fine, thank you, but motivated by civilians who don't understand that fact but instead assume anyone eating bacon & eggs must be halfway to the grave? Plus, the "uh-oh" is odd -- my youngest is four, and I haven't used that expression in a while! And the green/yellow/red system is overly simplistic, as if the soldiers can't grasp more sophisticated concepts like calorie counts.

What I've never seen addressed is this: if we as a nation switched to eating based on the My Plate concept (half the plate veggies), could we still feed ourselves as a nation? Can we really truck that many more veggies out of California?

The military is filled with Majors, Lieut. Cols, Colonels and Brigidier Generals who exist to do anything but fight or support those who fight. They are typically identified by lack of a combat patch on their uniform even though they have served lots of years.

Want to cut the military and maintain our capability....get rid of this gal's job and shift it to a line unit. Do that enough times and some of the combat brigades that are going to get cut will be maintained.

“My eyes got opened very quickly that it really is a group of citizens that we can totally control,” she said, about her visit to Fort Jackson, S.C. seven years ago to observe its dining facilities. “We talk about a village that raises a child. Well a controllable populace develops a brand new member of society, too. And that’s what we found there - people we could force to do what we wanted."

Troops, companies, and batteries had to have their own veggie gardens (to ward off scurvy) and any game near the post quickly disappeared.

I'll just bet GodZero would love to go back to the days like that, when a soldier was allotted 5 rounds for target practice a year. Then Zero could spend the rest of the Defense budget on stimulus and bailouts.

The army dining facilities do put up silly red, green, and yellow cards on all the serving lines. They also put out huge amounts of high quality food. For the most part the serving lines are staffed by civilians who do exercise portion control as a means of cost control. Nobody cares what you eat as long as you don't get fat. Then there is a problem. Do people talk silly? Yes, but less so within hearing range of gunfire and explosions.

While I would normally sympathize with the libertarian view and, in fact, strongly hold it in any matter such as this one, I have to side with the bureaucrats here.

Our country has a bunch of fat asses. Not a big deal. If you want to be an out-of-shape fat ass, that's your problem. However, soldiers who are fat and out of shape are not good soldiers. And that's bad for our country. You sign up for the military, we want you to eat well so you can kill and break things better.

It seems pretty clear to me that a policy of trying to get soldiers to eat healthy is a laudable public policy.

Der Takhs it, I didn't perceive for a moment that The "childish" language was "Red" or "Green". How silly! And of course, the entire purpose of color coded threat levels is that they precisely describe the threat level without mushy ambiguities.

But why not talk about the manufactured crisis? Isn't the manufactured crisis the real story?

Looked for a pic of the "high-ranking" dietician Sonya Cable. Found it. As I anticipated, she is a fairly plump little rear echelon "warrior". Looks like she lists donuts and cheesecake in her own personal "Green is Good!" group.

***************In other news, highly paid government experts have come to the conclusion that so many little ghetto porkers are fat because they drink tons of free, "nutritious" fruit juice..

(The "minority obesity epidemic" explained. You mean that if you encourage them to drink gallons of Chinese apple juice extract fortified with high fructose corn syrup and subsidize it at home and schools vs. bad, evil diet soda the little fucks actually get fat???And that two healthy bananas have more calories than an evil snickers candy bar??

Military members must pass a physical fitness test and height/weight standards to remain in the service. Anyone fat will be on the weight control program and counseled monthly to ensure weight loss. Anyone failing to meet standards or failing to pass the physical fitness test can, should, and will be removed from the military. Eat all you want but you better meet height/weight and pass the APFT.

Swift -- I don't want my military, which kills people and breaks things on my behalf and with my money, meeting any mere minimum requirements. I want my military striving for maximum killing and breaking efficiency.

The military is not a libertarian place. And libertarians will be quick to exit this vale of tears if our military doesn't win every time, all the time.

The Army also has a pre-Basic fat boys program to increase the number of potential recruits and increase the success of BCT graduation.

PS: The folks eating in DFACs aren't the problem. It's the ones that skip the DFAC and go for 3 big Macs. Hence the need to keep burgers and pizza on the DFAC menu to keep head counts up and folks in a more monitored eating environment

Michele Obama was not, nor has she ever been, elected to any US Government Office. Nor has she volunteered, or been drafted and then achieved any rank in the US Armed Forces. So anytime she has any say about anything about the government, or the Armed Services, then not only should she be mocked, but she should be told that her place is either get a real job, or shut the hell up and do the one job she did volunteer for, fucking the president. Otherwise she,and this goes for all first ladies, should shut up, sit down, and "eat yer' peas".

She has spent over $10 million dollars on vacations over the past three years, so yes, she is deserving of any crticism any American desires to pour on her.

Michele Obama was not, nor has she ever been, elected to any US Government Office. Nor has she volunteered, or been drafted and then achieved any rank in the US Armed Forces. So anytime she has any say about anything about the government, or the Armed Services, then not only should she be mocked, but she should be told that her place is either get a real job, or shut the hell up and do the one job she did volunteer for, fucking the president

Agreed. The law forbids me to be disdainful or disrespectful of the President or Congress (but not individual congressmen), but I have absolutely no hesitation in calling that miserable wretched woman the communist bitch that she is.

If I were asked to give a brief to the first lady, no matter what party, I would be sure to include some nice recipes and helpful hints on how to make cookies.

It remains unclear to me why people believe they are scoring argument points noting that White House dinners are more fat and calorie laden than the food we want to push on our soldiers. Are the job requirements of posh dinner guests and soldiers remotely similar such that their diets should be similar?

Just because Obama is a bad president doesn't mean that this isn't sound public policy. Chris Christie is a huge fat ass. He's a great governor. He'd make a terrible soldier. The kid sitting in a sniper's nest taking out our enemies with head shots is a great national asset. He should be in shape. He'd make a terrible governor (if he is even of age to run).

It's not the folks in the "killing people and breaking things" department who are getting fat, it's all the REMFs and Fobbits who are porkers (like Lt. Col chubby Cable). Hell, when I was in the "building stuff and then blowing it up" department, I ate everything in sight at every opportunity and couldn't put on an extra pound.